Picedit vs AutoCAD

[araugh]

Good day folks. I'm a relatively new laserist, I've been working with class 3b and <25 watt class 4 lasers for a little over 3 months now. For reasons I'm not going to bore you folks with, I'm trying to create a number of customized test patterns for use in Phoenix Live. Phoenix Live comes bundled with a program call Picedit for the creation of new animations. My problem is that I'm a die hard AutoCAD user and as a result of my using AutoCAD every day for 8 or 9 years, I'm having a heck of a time adapting to the picedit system. I'm sure it's a fine program, but I need to take a great deal of time to get familiar with how it operates but I'd like to have some operational testing patterns in a timely fashion.

Is there a way to import relatively simple autocad files into Picedit or even directly into the .cat file? I've tried importing a .plt file into picedit but I must have something set incorrectly because it just didn't understand the file. Alternatively if anyone has already created some LISP based dxf, dwg, dwf, etc. to ILDA or .pic converter, any idea as to where I could find this chunk of gold?

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

[Doc]

See the next thread to this one

[mixedgas]

He means ILD SOS... laserboy will do it as well.


Steve

[araugh]

What it is not:
- A frame editor
- Hard to use
- Expensive
- A generic DXF importer (DXF R12 and less only currently supported)

Is this no longer the case?

[Doc]

Is this no longer the case?

Excerpt from the user manual

It would appear that one would have to "save as" an earlier version file type.


4.2 Loading Files
ILD SÔS can load 4 basic file types: ILDA (0-5), DXF (R12 and earlier), CAT
(LDS), and PIC (DSP, LDS). ILDA and CAT files are loaded individually because
they contain sequences of frames. DXF and PIC files are treated differently
because they only contain one frame. Instead of specifying a file, when you load
these file types you must specify a directory containing DXF or PIC files. The
loader will then load all of the DXF or PIC files in that directory in alphanumeric
order. If the file you are loading is a paletted file, and no palette is contained,
then an input palette chooser dialog box appears with a frame preview and

[araugh]

Got it, thanks. I'll probably buy it eventually, but at it's current price point I should spend the time to just learn picedit. I appreciate the answers!

[-bart-]

If it's only a few test-patterns, why don't you just share the dxf files over here.
Posting content is an excellent way to contribute to an online community.
Surely someone will be kind enough to transfer them for you.

[araugh]

I would but it's actually a company logo. I doubt the owner of it would appreciate it. Thanks for the help anyway, I'll upload some of the non-branded things I've created.